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Finger Painting School Paints

LEVEL:Preschool and Early Primary

Kids love finger painting. It is so simple
and doesn’t require any instructions to have some fun. It allows children to explore
textures and colours with their fingers while developing fine controlling skills
with hand-eye co-ordination.Children also
learn how to change the look of their painting by adding, mixing and blending
colours.

Older children enjoy finger painting as an
alternative medium to work with.It can
be fun trying out how many ways they can use their own fingerprint to create
flowers, bugs, caterpillars etc.The use
of art scrapers can be very exciting by making quick and amazing designs.

You might need to keep a close watch as children like to
touch things with paint on their fingers and it won’t take long for paint to
get everywhere. Making sure you have aprons
on and laydown your plastic coversheet will help.

More than often finger paintings are painted far too
thick. This can take a long time to dry and when thick paintings are dry they
flake off the paper within weeks. Also the paper can get too soggy and rip. This
is why quite often finger paint is not painted onto paper.See option 1 below.

There are two ways to
finger paint:1. Paint directly onto the laminated table top or plastic sheet.When you have finished wash it all away.

2. Paint onto paper, trying not to paint too thickly.See above.

Cleaning Up:Have a large dish of warm soapy water prepared and ready to clean paint
soaked hands before you start.When you
are finished remove aprons and clean hands to avoid paint getting on to
clothing.

Let’s get started:

Spoon or pour the paint onto your paper or on the table
top.Spread paint with hands and fingers
to mix the colours and enjoy the sensory experience.Draw pictures and patterns with hands and
fingers, moving them all over the surface.

Mixing colours too much can make colours muddy.

Older children can use paint scrapers and combs to make design
patterns in the paint. Patterns can be made by scraping in straight long lines
or sweeping swirling movements.

The key is to have fun mixing colours and making shapes.

TIPS:

Finger Paints:Finger paint is one of the cheapest paints
around as there is very little in the way of raw material in the formulation.A good finger paint should be thick, flowing
and with some sort of safety standard like CE, ASTM or ACMI.Safety is important. This paint is going on children’s
skin and maybe in their mouth.

Tempera Paint: Some
quality tempera paint brands are thick enough for finger painting but if you
need to thicken your tempera paints here is a recipe.

Paint Scraper Sets
are ideal for finger painting and they are easy for children to hold on to.See photo.